Hemlock Dental Clinic
According to our open methodology, this clinic scored 77.2/100 for transparency, reputation, service accessibility, and digital visibility.
Overall rank: #3 of 29 ranked clinics · Last checked: 8 September 2026
77.2/100
21 of 100
Visibility in ChatGPT and Gemini answers
How often ChatGPT and Gemini name this clinic when a patient asks them to recommend a dentist. Measured by Ansmeter, 7 October 2026.
Ansmeter is an affiliated service. Its figure is not part of this rating and does not affect positions — scores change only when public data changes.
Positions by Rating Profile
- Overall Transparency & Trust#377.2/100
- Best for Expatsnot ranked
- Best for Dental Implants#372.5/100
- Best for Emergency Dental Care#374.8/100
- Best Price Transparency#365.9/100
- Best English-speaking Clinics#276.8/100
- Best for Families / Children#277.6/100
- Sleep Dentistry (GA / deep sedation)not ranked
General Anaesthesia & Deep Sedation
Whether the clinic documents treatment under general anaesthesia or deep / twilight sedation — "sleep dentistry", where the patient is asleep and unaware (does not feel, see, or hear the procedure). Ordinary conscious sedation, where the patient stays awake and responsive, does not count here. This is informational and does not affect the transparency score.
- ✗ General anaesthesia / deep sedation (sleep dentistry) — No general anaesthesia or deep sedation documented The clinic publishes sedation dentistry with oral sedation only. Methodology 1.4.0 counts general anaesthesia or deep intravenous / twilight sedation and excludes ordinary conscious sedation, so no qualifying level is documented on the clinic channel. [s1]
Summary
Single-dentist general practice on West Broadway in the Fairview district, a fifteen-minute walk from the Broadway-City Hall Canada Line station. Dr. Farahnaz Alavi leads a team that publishes pediatric, implant, oral-surgery and oral-sedation services, and the clinic advertises two fixed uninsured-patient rates on its own site alongside a large cost-guide blog.
Strengths
- Information Transparency: 20 of 20 points.
- Reputation & Reviews: 19 of 20 points.
- No red flags identified in public sources.
Weaknesses
- Price Transparency: 6 of 15 verifiable points (missing: prices or price ranges published; filling price listed; crown price listed; implant price listed)
Score Breakdown
Every criterion below is scored from public sources. ✓ verified yes · ✗ verified no / not found · ◐ partial · ? unverified (scores 0, not a negative finding).
Information Transparency
20 / 20
Whether basic facts about the clinic - its team, premises, services, and location - are publicly verifiable.
| ✓ | Has a working website Read live on 2026-09-07: full service tree, team pages, financial policy and a large blog. [s1] | 4/4 |
| ✓ | Dentist names listed Dr. Farahnaz Alavi has her own team-member page; the rest of the published team are assistants and front-desk staff, named by first name only. [s1] [s2] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Dentist specializations listed The dentist page states her qualifications and areas of practice. [s2] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Real clinic photos Confirmed on the place page in a browser on 2026-09-08: the lead owner photograph is the practice's own waiting room at 1262 W Broadway — its cream tub chairs, marble floor and street window — so the existing value is evidenced rather than inferred. [s1] [gmpb] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Service list published A full service tree from general and preventive dentistry to implants, oral surgery and sedation. [s1] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Clear contact details Phone, e-mail (info@hemlockdentalclinic.com), address and hours published site-wide, plus a separate emergency-contact page. [s1] [s3] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | English website version [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Address and map published Street address in the footer with an embedded map, and a matching Google place. [s1] [g1] | 2/2 |
Price Transparency
6 / 15
Whether patients can estimate costs before visiting. Published price ranges count; exact prices are not required.
| ✗ | Prices or price ranges published The clinic publishes exactly two priced bundles for uninsured patients ($50 for a specific-concern exam with one X-ray, $299 for a cleaning with exam). That is below the bar of a standing fee list or ranges for at least three services, so the criterion stays false even though individual priced items exist. [s1] [s4] | 0/3 |
| ✓ | Cleaning price listed A cleaning with exam is published at $299 for patients without insurance, repeated in the site-wide banner and on the financial-policy page. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✗ | Filling price listed [s1] [s4] | 0/2 |
| ✗ | Crown price listed [s1] [s4] | 0/2 |
| ✗ | Implant price listed The clinic's implant cost guide publishes market ranges for the city ("most single implants in Vancouver fall between $2,500 and $5,500", full-arch "$20,000-$30,000 per arch") rather than its own fee, so it is not the clinic's published price. [s5] | 0/2 |
| ✓ | Consultation price listed A specific-concern examination with one X-ray is published at $50 for patients without insurance. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | X-ray / imaging price listed The same $50 bundle names one X-ray as part of what is priced. [s1] | 2/2 |
Reputation & Reviews
19 / 20
Public review signals. The Google rating is adjusted with a Bayesian prior (rating 4.0, weight 25) so a 5.0 from a handful of reviews does not outrank a 4.8 from hundreds.
| ✓ | Google rating (Bayesian-adjusted) Read live on the place page in a browser on 2026-09-08. Unchanged from the automated reading of 2026-09-07. The star histogram — 382 five-star, 0 four-star, 0 three-star, 0 two-star and 6 one-star — sums to 388, matching the 388 in the place-page header exactly, and its weighted mean 4.938 reproduces the published 4.9. [g1] [gmpb] | 6/6 |
| ◐ | Google review volume Read live on 2026-09-08 from the place-page header, and the star histogram sums to the same figure. The card held 389 and the listing has lost 1 since, which Google does when it removes reviews. [g1] [gmpb] | 2.5/3 |
| ✓ | Review recency The newest review visible is one month old, which proves the within_3_months bucket and no better. Visible dates: 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4 and 4 months, then 1 year. Sample: the eight reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order; a newest-first list was not available, so a review more recent than the newest one visible may exist. [gmpb] | 3/3 |
| ✓ | Clinic responds to reviews The owner answers all eight of the reviews visible on the place page on 2026-09-08. Sample: the eight reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order; a newest-first list was not available, so a review more recent than the newest one visible may exist. [gmpb] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | No recurring complaints Google's relevance ordering surfaces eight five-star accounts and no critical text at all, so nothing readable establishes a theme and the criterion is false with the unread mass stated: the one- and two-star share is 6 of 388 = 1.5 %, the lowest negative share of any Vancouver card, and those six accounts could not be read. Sample: the eight reviews Google Maps renders on the place page in its own relevance order; a newest-first list was not available, so a review more recent than the newest one visible may exist. [gmpb] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | No suspicious review patterns Judged on the histogram shape, the spread of dates, the variety of reviewers and the wording, on 2026-09-08. The distribution is strictly two-valued — 382 five-star and 6 one-star, with nothing at four, three or two — and that is disclosed rather than explained away. Against a manipulation reading: the visible dates spread across a year without clustering, the eight accounts name several different clinicians and hygienists and describe different treatments at lengths from one line to several paragraphs, and the owner answers every one of them individually rather than in a template. [gmpb] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Active Facebook presence The site header links the clinic Facebook page alongside Instagram, X and YouTube. [s1] | 1/1 |
| ✗ | TripAdvisor presence TripAdvisor's own search index was queried in a real browser on 2026-09-10, under the clinic name and again with the city appended; it carries no listing for this practice. [hemlock-dental-clinic-vancouver-deepen] | 0/0.5 |
| ✓ | Other review platforms Yelp publishes a claimed business page for the practice at 1262 W Broadway, read live on 2026-09-10; it carries two patient reviews, both held back by Yelp's recommendation filter. [hemlock-dental-clinic-vancouver-deepen-2] [hemlock-dental-clinic-vancouver-deepen-3] | 0.5/0.5 |
Medical Infrastructure
11 / 15
The range of publicly documented equipment and services. This measures documented availability, not clinical quality.
| ✓ | On-site X-ray Digital X-rays are a published service. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✗ | CBCT (3D imaging) No cone-beam CT anywhere in the service tree or the technology wording. [s1] | 0/2 |
| ✓ | Implantology [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Orthodontics Invisalign. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Oral surgery Oral surgery, tooth and wisdom-tooth extractions, bone grafting for implants. [s1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Pediatric dentistry A pediatric dentistry branch with children's exams, fluoride, sealants and space maintainers. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Emergency care Emergency dental care with its own service page and a separate emergency-contact page. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✗ | Works with international patients Nothing on the site addresses international patients, foreign insurance or paperwork in another language. [s1] [s4] | 0/2 |
Communication & Service
6.5 / 10
How easy it is to contact the clinic, get answers, and book - especially for international patients.
| ✗ | WhatsApp / LINE available [s1] [s3] | 0/2 |
| ? | Response speed | 0/1.5 |
| ✓ | English spoken [s1] | 2.5/2.5 |
| ✓ | Pre-visit consultation possible A booking form on the home page takes preferred day, time and the services wanted. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Clear service explanations Each treatment has a plain-language page and the blog explains procedures step by step. [s1] | 1/1 |
| ✓ | Convenient opening hours Confirmed on the clinic's own Google Business Profile, read in a browser on 2026-09-08: Monday to Friday 09:30–17:30 and Saturday 09:30–16:00, Sunday closed. Saturday opening is published clearly on the clinic's own record. [s1] [gmpb] | 1.5/1.5 |
AI & Search Visibility
7 / 10
Whether the clinic is discoverable when patients search - including via AI assistants. Checked with fixed queries: "best dentist Canada", "English speaking dentist Canada", "dental implants Canada", "emergency dentist Canada", "Canada dental clinic for expats".
| ✓ | Mentioned for: best dentist Canada hemlockdentalclinic.com ranks fourth in the results of the canonical query. [sq1] | 1/1 |
| ✗ | Mentioned for: English speaking dentist Canada The clinic and its domain do not appear in the results of the canonical query, which returned at least three Vancouver, British Columbia results and is therefore on target. [sq2] | 0/1 |
| ✓ | Mentioned for: dental implants Canada hemlockdentalclinic.com ranks sixth in the results of the canonical query. [sq3] | 1/1 |
| ? | Mentioned for: emergency dentist Canada The canonical run of this query returned a page dominated by Vancouver, Washington: only one result belongs to Vancouver, British Columbia, so the SERP is off-target and absence from it is not evidence. Recorded as null rather than false. [sq4] | 0/1 |
| ✗ | Mentioned for: Canada dental clinic for expats The clinic and its domain do not appear in the results of the canonical query. [sq5] | 0/1 |
| ✓ | Structured data on website JSON-LD with Place, GeoCoordinates, Service, Offer and FAQPage objects. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
| ✓ | Google indexing quality The clinic domain takes rank one and five further own pages (dentist page, landing page, contact, FAQ, service pages) in the first twenty results of the name-quoted query (web search, 2026-09-07). [giq1] | 2/2 |
| ✓ | Dedicated service pages Individual pages for root canal therapy, implants, oral surgery, sedation, pediatric dentistry and more. [s1] | 1.5/1.5 |
Licensing & Credentials
Whether the clinic publishes its operating licence and the dentists working there together with their professional licence numbers. A verified “not published” is recorded as a red flag; data we have not checked yet is shown as unverified and carries no penalty.
Clinic operating licence: not checked against public sources yet — unverified, no penalty
Dentists & professional licences
Red Flags
No red flags identified in the public sources we reviewed.
Data We Could Not Verify
- Communication & Service: Response speed
- AI & Search Visibility: Mentioned for: emergency dentist Canada
Unverified items score 0 points but are not treated as negative findings. If you can document any of them, please send a correction.
Contact Information
| Website | https://hemlockdentalclinic.com/ |
|---|---|
| Phone | +1 604-738-9202 |
| Google Maps | Map listing |
| Address | 1262 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC V6H 1G6, Canada |
Contact details are provided for identification only and may change; verify with the clinic directly.
Sources
| ID | Source | What it supports | Accessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| s1 | https://hemlockdentalclinic.com/ | Clinic home page: services, team, hours, address, e-mail, published uninsured-patient rates, blog index | 2026-09-07 |
| s2 | https://hemlockdentalclinic.com/team-member/dr-farahnaz-alavi/ | Dentist page for Dr. Farahnaz Alavi | 2026-09-07 |
| s3 | https://hemlockdentalclinic.com/contact-us/ | Contact page | 2026-09-07 |
| s4 | https://hemlockdentalclinic.com/patient-information/financial-policy/ | Financial policy page: payment and insurance handling, no treatment fees | 2026-09-07 |
| s5 | https://hemlockdentalclinic.com/services/dental-implants/dental-imp… | The clinic's own implant cost guide, which publishes city-wide market ranges rather than its own fees | 2026-09-07 |
| g1 | https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hemlock+Dental+Clinic%2C+1262+W+B… | Google place page read on 2026-09-07: rating 4.9, 389 reviews, address, coordinates, phone, categories and the clinic-written business description | 2026-09-07 |
| reg1 | https://apps.oralhealthbc.ca/apps/public-register/ | BCCOHP public register, class Dentist, searched by surname on 2026-09-07 (ASP.NET form; results are readable, registrant cards are not linkable) | 2026-09-07 |
| sq1 | search:best dentist Vancouver BC Canada | Canonical visibility query - best dentist Vancouver BC Canada (AI-visibility pass, re-run with a country qualifier because the first run was dominated by Vancouver, Washington) | 2026-09-07 |
| sq2 | search:English speaking dentist Vancouver | Canonical visibility query - English speaking dentist Vancouver (AI-visibility pass) | 2026-09-07 |
| sq3 | search:dental implants Vancouver BC Canada | Canonical visibility query - dental implants Vancouver BC Canada (AI-visibility pass, re-run with a country qualifier) | 2026-09-07 |
| sq4 | search:emergency dentist Vancouver | Canonical visibility query - emergency dentist Vancouver (AI-visibility pass) | 2026-09-07 |
| sq5 | search:Vancouver dental clinic for expats | Canonical visibility query - Vancouver dental clinic for expats (AI-visibility pass) | 2026-09-07 |
| giq1 | search:"Hemlock Dental Clinic" Vancouver | A quoted search for the clinic's name (twenty results reviewed) | 2026-09-07 |
| gmpb | https://www.google.com/maps/place/x/@49.2633292,-123.1326089,17z/da… | The clinic’s Google Maps place page, opened in a real browser on 2026-09-08. The Reviews tab (this URL) gives the headline rating, the review-count header, the five star-histogram buckets read whole from their accessibility labels, and the eight most-relevant reviews with their star values, dates, text and owner replies; the sibling Overview URL https://www.google.com/maps/place/x/@49.2633292,-123.1326089,17z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x548673e725d475cb:0xaa2e39df374b560b!8m2!3d49.2633292!4d-123.1326089?hl=en gives the listing name, address, telephone, website, business category, the full published opening week and the lead owner photograph. The listing opens as «Hemlock Dental Clinic», category Dentist, at 1262 W Broadway, Vancouver BC · +1 604-738-9202 · hemlockdentalclinic.com — the identifiers the card itself carries, so the place identifier resolves to this practice and not to a neighbour. | 2026-09-08 |
| hemlock-dental-clinic-vancouver-deepen | https://www.tripadvisor.ca/TypeAheadJson?action=API&query=Hemlock+D… | TripAdvisor's own type-ahead search endpoint, the one its search box calls, opened directly in a real browser on 2026-09-10. Queried under the clinic name alone and again with the city appended, it returns no listing for this practice; the query broadens to dental-clinic listings in other countries instead. A control query for an existing dental-clinic listing (Old Igarashi Dental Clinic, Shizuoka) returns that listing at rank 1, so the method does surface dental clinics when they are in the index. The /Search results page itself never resolves past its loading spinner for a signed-out session, which is why the search endpoint is cited. | 2026-09-10 |
| hemlock-dental-clinic-vancouver-deepen-2 | https://www.yelp.com/biz/hemlock-dental-clinic-vancouver | Yelp business page for Hemlock Dental Clinic, opened in a real browser on 2026-09-10 — the 403 recorded on 2026-09-07 was an automated-client obstacle only. The page is claimed by the business and carries the card's own address, 1262 W Broadway, Vancouver BC V6H 1G6, its opening week and its service list. No review is shown in the recommended set. | 2026-09-10 |
| hemlock-dental-clinic-vancouver-deepen-3 | https://www.yelp.com/not_recommended_reviews/hemlock-dental-clinic-… | Yelp's 'not currently recommended' page for the practice, read on 2026-09-10: two patient reviews, dated 12 March 2026 and 2 February 2023, both describing visits to this clinic by name. Yelp states these are not counted towards the business's star rating. | 2026-09-10 |
Change History
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| 2026-09-10 | Checked by hand in a browser on 2026-09-10: TripAdvisor carries no listing for the practice (its own search index queried under two query forms); the Yelp business page, refused to an automated client, opens in a real browser and carries two filtered patient reviews, so onOtherPlatforms moves null to true. |
| 2026-09-08 | Checked by hand in a browser: the clinic’s Google Maps place page was opened in a real browser and read on both its Reviews and Overview tabs. Recorded from it: the rating re-verified against the star histogram, the review count, the histogram itself (382/0/0/0/6 = 388, weighted mean 4.938), review recency, the owner-reply state, the complaint reading and the manipulation reading from the eight most-relevant reviews, the lead owner photograph and the full published opening week. Fields this pass did not measure are untouched. |
| 2026-09-07 | Adversarial verification (no browser): all four mandatory sweeps run on the card; every cited URL re-fetched for liveness; the Google rating and coordinates re-read independently from the live place record and confirmed; the licensing block re-run against the province statutory register; TripAdvisor probed directly and found unreadable to an automated client. On this card, the platform-presence and TripAdvisor fields, which rested on search-result snippets, were returned to unchecked with the platforms that were actually opened named, and the sedation level was corrected to a checked negative because the clinic publishes oral sedation only. |
| 2026-09-07 | Initial data collection (automated): clinic site read in full including the dentist page, financial policy and the implant cost guide; Google place page read automatically; the single named dentist confirmed in the BCCOHP public register; the five canonical visibility queries taken from the AI-visibility pass; index quality probed with a name-quoted search query. Reputation fields other than the rating and the count are left for a manual browser check. |
A question or a correction?
Have a question, a suggestion, or a correction to this page? Get in touch — we read every message. Verified data corrections are reviewed against sources and applied with a public change-history entry.